The Life and Opinions of Lee Miller, Gent

And now for something completely random - cloud backups

There I was scratching my …. - well let’s not get too anatomical here - as one does at work, when into my head it popped - “Cloud backups, just what every digital home needs”.

So after some in-depth research involving Google and the terms free and online and backup I had the beginnings of a short list of backups for cheapskates (pace my Scottish heritage).

A few years ago (or eons as computer geeks would have it) I had flirted with Mozy but a combination of primitive computer, ISP data limits and an astronomical price rise had relegated that to the evergrowing heap of failed technology enthusiasms, leaving me unbacked-up and at evergrowing risk from the long overdue meteorite that will pulverise my house and computer into smithereens.  At this point my first thought will of course be for my much beloved collection of pre-loved Word documents.

Hence (to close the loop and get us back to our narrative) my unexpected fixation on Cloud Backups.

A short list was easy - Dropbox because everyone says how wonderful it is and no-one mentions that it costs, Wuala (as the cannibal said to the missionary), Sugarsync (bet it melts when you come to wash up in it) and the creatively named Adrive.

And the winner is (roll of drums and flurry of minor celebrities) Syncdocs!

Well there is nothing cheaper than a free program that syncs my desktop to an even free-er Google Docs.  Now I feel a true member of the intrepid band of cloud warriors, editing documents with gay abandon across a plethora of platforms (well 3 if you’re going to be pedantic about these things) but with the added security of knowing that really the files are right on my hard disk where they ought to be if I want them.

www.syncdocs.com (in case you had problems in working out where to go)

A disquisition on coincidence and chain of consciousness

The fair (and not-so-fair) reader may have discerned a pattern to posts so far - a pattern which leads us inevitably but not obviously to the movie The Trip whose review caught my eye in today’s Age.

I think this is an example of the new car phenomenon.  Have you noticed when you get a new car (not actually an event which has occurred often in my life) there are suddenly a lot more of that type of car on the road?

So the chain goes something like this - I have been trying unsuccessfully to read Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (which features on not a few 100 Books to Read before you kick the bucket lists) as does its near contemporary Tristram Shandy which is a personal favourite.  Consequently Tristram Shandy and its general all-over-the-placeness was in my mind at the time when starting this blog that you, lone reader, have stumbled upon (even though that is another website entirely). 

Having missed the film when it came out I decided in a quiet moment at work the other day to check it out - you know the drill, read a few reviews, get a feel for whether you have missed out on yet another cultural icon, engender a bit more guilt at being so far out of the happening loop - and there it was Tristram Shandy, A Cock and Bull Story starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, directed by Michael Winterbottom.

And how does that get us to The Trip, you ask? 

Starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, directed by Michael Winterbottom.

Maybe I could even go and see the movie.